Mr. Edrissa Mass Jobe, President of Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), has stressed that “prisons are not isolated from society”, and “prison health is public health”. He noted that the vast majority of people committed to prison and the prison guards, and their families interact continuously, thus making prisons the reservoirs of diseases.
Jobe made the remarks recently as the GCCI, in collaboration with United Nation Development Programme (UNDP), handed over to Gambia Prisons Service (GPS), an ambulance worth 2.5 million dalasis as well as a fuel coupon of D100,000 during a ceremony held at Kerr Jula in Bijilo. The gesture is meant to support the Prison sector’s fight against Covid-19.
“This ambulance is yet to help further the agenda of equivalence of the healthcare, and the right to health is a principle that applies to all prisoners, who are entitled to receive the same quality of medical care that is available in the community,” he pointed out.
Describing 2020 as a challenging year globally due to the pandemic, the GCCI President held, despite limited resources, “we [have] survived in a spirit of solidarity beyond all barriers, political, religious, social. We came together as one party”.
He said GCCI had realized that the prison and the hospitals are the worst and most vulnerable places in the county, hence in the spirit of true generosity, they focused their material and financial contributions to helping these institutions.
Jobe again: “Our efforts were directed not only to regulate distress but also to reduce confusion and uncertainty. Our efforts were meant promote and institute a platform of genuine reform in the prison system and the rule of law”.
He intimated prisons are an important part of the rule of law as it protects society from dangerous and violent criminals, but at the same time, prisons are an ecosystem to Gambians: the guilty and innocent, the jailor and jailed, and the lawyer and judge.
Deputy Director General Modou Jarju, who represented GPS at the ceremony, said given the significance of paramedic service to GPS, particularly Mile 2 prison which, he divulged, currently houses over 400 inmates, the donation of an ambulance by GCCI is indeed very timely and relevant to their institutional needs and current requirements of the prison sub-health system.
He informed that currently, there are no ambulances in Old Jeshwang Prison Camp and Janjanbureh Prison, while Mile 2 has an old one. He disclosed further that the said ambulance is over burdened with pressures of providing paramedic services to both Mile 2 and Jeshwang prisons.
Therefore, Jarju noted the acquisition of an ambulance for the prison was long overdue, and this GCCI ambulance would go a long way in improving the provision of health services to the prison.
Hence, it must be pointed out that GCCI, in collaboration with UNDP, had come to the aid of the prison at a time when they needed them most, Jarju put on record, adding “I think this gathering needs no reminding about the Covid-19 pandemic with its accompanying challenges at the GPS “.
The GPS senior official acknowledged that GCCI and UNDP have provided life changing support services in various ways that have helped to improve the lives of both inmates and officers. He cited the procurement of a mini bus, expansion of the clinic at Mile 2, construction of a new clinic at Jeshwang Prison, among the many services they provided to the prisons.
Jarju also hailed the donation as very significant and a great milestone in their partnership with GCCI–which is growing from strength to strength.
